During his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Barack Obama got applause for acknowledging that some federal regulations are outdated, unnecessary or costly.

He went on to claim, “In fact, I’ve approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his.”

That’s technically true: President George W. Bush did issue more final rules during the first three years of his presidency than President Obama has during his first three years. The data I’ve posted here at the Ten Thousand Commandments page, and in the chart below, make that fairly clear. President Bush wasn’t much of a de-regulator.

This coming Monday, January 30, CEI will hold a Capitol Hill briefing regarding recent congressional proposals to fund federal surface transportation investments by directing into the Highway Trust Fund revenue raised from expanded energy production. This is widely known as “drilling for roads.” While we certainly support expanding domestic oil and gas drilling, there are major problems with such a proposal. I previously blogged on this topic here and here.

If the federal government is going to continue funding highways at the level that it currently does, it will need additional revenue. The current program faces several major challenges.> View the full commentary on Globalwarming.org